In honor of Independence Day in the United States, here’s John A. Conkling, adjunct professor and fireworks expert to show us the chemistry behind fireworks. Watch this video and learn the science so that you can impress all your friends and family tonight with your incredible knowledge. [via Adafruit]

Matt Richardson is a San Francisco-based creative technologist and Contributing Editor at MAKE. He’s the co-author of Getting Started with Raspberry Pi and the author of Getting Started with BeagleBone.